Dell has made similar Inspiron and XPS systems for about the last year. In fact, my sister bought one at Staples like around Christmas time. It's a nice looking box, but fairly deep. I really wouldn't consider it a small form factor machine. The specs are okay though. It's also very quiet. Are you thinking about getting one for Linux or something?

Dell has made similar Inspiron and XPS systems for about the last year. In fact, my sister bought one at Staples like around Christmas time. It's a nice looking box, but fairly deep. I really wouldn't consider it a small form factor machine. The specs are okay though. It's also very quiet. Are you thinking about getting one for Linux or something?

Well..kinda thinking about it...Ben...

It would be plenty sufficient for most of my needs. I do agree that its a bit deep for sff, but its similar in dimensions to the Optiplex range of sff.

Mind, they also have a mini tower too. Big by most mini standards, but way smaller than a G5 Mac towers.... Thats for sure.

Bandit Bill wrote:

It looks pretty nice. Nice that it has HDMI. The 250 Watt power supply isn't that appealing to me.

Power wise, I don't think its meant to be a gamers machine. Its just for standard Home use...

I was thinking 250 Watts is too much power consumption. I realize the system will only use what it needs. If a mini can keep me content with a 110 Watt supply (previously 85 Watt, G4 mini) then I see no need to run a machine that potentially consumes double the power.

I'm just thinking from the standpoint of a living room appliance which would be on 24/7.

Last edited by Bandit Bill on Tue Sep 30, 2008 7:29 pm; edited 1 time in total

Its interesting to note that its virtually impossible to get a low power supply these days. If you go to a PC shop to built your own standard pc box, you'll find that the lowest power supply is about 500 watts.

I suppose I should have expanded on my "agreement". It's about reducing energy consumption of computers (and other things of course). I have three macs operating in my house; two minis and a Cube, all with relatively low power consumption. I read somewhere that even in sleep mode, computers still consume a moderate proportion of their operating power, so I've gone to shutting down two of them at night when use is finished, and one doesn't come on again until my daughter comes home from school in the afternoon. At work, I start my iMac when I arrive and shut it down when I leave.

I have a 20" monitor on my Intel mini (my main computer at home), which I was itching to replace with a 24". When I found out that power consumption of the 24" is about double that of a 20 or 22", I changed my mind. I'm now looking for a good quality 22" (with a TVA panel or equivalent) that also has the usb connectors like my Dell 20". I'm still looking because I don't think any such 22" monitor exists. Maybe they'll come out with a low power consumption 24"????_________________Mini 1 (2012): 2.3 ghz Core i7; 10 gb RAM, Corsair 240gb SSD, 500 gb Seagate XT
Mini 2 (2009): 2.26 ghz Core 2 duo, 8 gb RAM, 500 gb Seagate used as HTPC
Also a 13" MacBook Air, 21.5" i5 iMac & 11.6" Acer 1810TZ running Ubuntu, openSUSE & Crunchbang

My guess is that the next round of iMacs will have LED backlighting and much lower power consumption. I'm glad my inexpensive Asus EEE 1000h laptop already has it, along with the Atom processor.

I was visiting a PC user the other day and he showed me his home theatre set-up. It was being driven by a Frankenstein PC. The case was open, it had tubes running out of it leading to a liquid cooled radiator with its own fan and power supply. My guess is that machine had around 750 watts worth of power supply, not to mention the amplifier and projection unit.

Back to the Dell. It's great that it looks good, I just hope it's efficient and quiet.

I suppose I should have expanded on my "agreement". It's about reducing energy consumption of computers (and other things of course). I have three macs operating in my house; two minis and a Cube, all with relatively low power consumption. I read somewhere that even in sleep mode, computers still consume a moderate proportion of their operating power, so I've gone to shutting down two of them at night when use is finished, and one doesn't come on again until my daughter comes home from school in the afternoon. At work, I start my iMac when I arrive and shut it down when I leave.

I have a 20" monitor on my Intel mini (my main computer at home), which I was itching to replace with a 24". When I found out that power consumption of the 24" is about double that of a 20 or 22", I changed my mind. I'm now looking for a good quality 22" (with a TVA panel or equivalent) that also has the usb connectors like my Dell 20". I'm still looking because I don't think any such 22" monitor exists. Maybe they'll come out with a low power consumption 24"????

You could take a look at 23" monitors. They use the same native resolution as a 24", but I'm assuming slightly lower power consumption? So less energy for the same real estate

@Aqua: That's a pretty nice looking machine. Might be a good investment if it runs Linux, especially for you!

Thanks mate.

Actually don't know if you use Linux at all, but if you are thinking of picking it up, there are a small group of us using it here..

Ghostdawg, Hackers, Fox and a few others... are all into a bit of Linux play..

So if you feel tempted, these guys are very good buddies to have around...

Cheers

Aqua

Well I'm afraid I haven't been much of a Linux user, just Mac and windoze. I'm keen to try it at some point though, and when I do, I'll be sure to refer to you guys for tips! _________________2.2 GHz C2D MacBook/2 GB RAM/5400 rpm 120 GB HD
iPod Nano 8GB
500GB FW400 Neil Poulton Lacie external HD
20" Samsung Widescreen display

Well I'm afraid I haven't been much of a Linux user, just Mac and windoze. I'm keen to try it at some point though, and when I do, I'll be sure to refer to you guys for tips!

Well, let me know when that day arrives.

You won't regret it.

From my POV, Linux has helped to broaden my IT horizons, most especially when it comes to OS's.

In the past four or five years of using Linux, I have gone from being a fanboy of one OS ...Mac of course......to something of an OS Agnostic...that is, I am now fluent enough with each OS to know what the good and bad points are of each.

It also serves a practical function, in that one becomes increasingly comfortable with whatever OS is loaded on a machine in front of you.

Well I'm afraid I haven't been much of a Linux user, just Mac and windoze. I'm keen to try it at some point though, and when I do, I'll be sure to refer to you guys for tips!

Well, let me know when that day arrives.

You won't regret it.

From my POV, Linux has helped to broaden my IT horizons, most especially when it comes to OS's.

In the past four or five years of using Linux, I have gone from being a fanboy of one OS ...Mac of course......to something of an OS Agnostic...that is, I am now fluent enough with each OS to know what the good and bad points are of each.

It also serves a practical function, in that one becomes increasingly comfortable with whatever OS is loaded on a machine in front of you.

And that sort of flexibility, can't be a bad thing....

Cheers

Aqua

Well said, you got me itching to try linux.....which version do you recommend? As I understand it, there are heaps of different versions. Also, since you seem to be pretty well versed with OS's, if I was to install an alternative OS on my external HD, what would you recommend? Linux? Ubuntu?_________________2.2 GHz C2D MacBook/2 GB RAM/5400 rpm 120 GB HD
iPod Nano 8GB
500GB FW400 Neil Poulton Lacie external HD
20" Samsung Widescreen display